Marc Chagall Museum in Vitebsk turns 30!
“I did not live with you, but my every painting breathed with your spirit and reflection. I kissed you with all colors and strokes...” This is the way the famous avant-garde artist of the 20th century Marc Chagall talked about his hometown after years of emigration. In 1920, he left Vitebsk and never returned. As time passed, he got afraid of not seeing the city and its colors the way he remembered. The city has always remembered him. A museum in honor of the artist was opened in Vitebsk on 23 September 1991. Every year it draws thousands of visitors. This autumn, the Marc Chagall House Museum and the Marc Chagall Art Center celebrate their 30th anniversary and invite you to see the permanent exhibition and also attend special events and new projects...
The idea to set up a museum to honor Vitebsk’s famous native was put forward by local intellectuals in the 1970s, but it never got off its feet during the Soviet era. The idea was supported by greatest minds and talents, including Academician Dmitry Likhachev, poets Andrei Voznesensky, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Bella Akhmadulina...
Such a museum was finally set up at 11 Pokrovskaya Street in Vitebsk, in the house Marc Chagall's father built in 1900 and where the future great artist spent his childhood.
The process of museum’s recognition got off the ground after the museum was visited by the artist’s heiresses, granddaughters Bella and Meret Meyer. They came there more than once and officially allowed the museum to use the artist's name in its title. The museum’s collection grew bigger. Many of its exhibits - paintings, books, items of the 19th century - were donated by Vitebsk residents and foreigners, sometimes anonymously. Interesting items bought at antique shops in Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Germany and the Netherlands helped reconstruct a daily life of a middle-class Jewish family.
Today, the museum’s holdings include 8,500 exhibits, while the house-museum itself has become one of the most visited sites of Vitebsk.
The museum has printed editions from the library collection of patron collector Heinrich Mandel, including catalogs, books, graphic sheets of the early 20th century, and also 1,500 works of the artist. Some 300 of them are graphic works that were donated by Heinrich Mandel, Marc Chagall’s daughter Ida, and his granddaughters Bella and Meret Meyer. In addition, perhaps only in Vitebsk you can see about 200 works of the European avant-garde artists.
In 2022, the museum will celebrate the 135th birthday of Marc Chagall. The celebrations will include Chagall readings, a plein air of avant-garde artists, and a conference. The museum will also put together an exclusive exhibition at the Marc Chagall Art Center with the assistance of one of the world's largest collectors of Marc Chagall's graphic works.
On photo: Director of the Marc Chagall House Museum Irina Voronova
